The Five Stages of Grief (In Accordance to the Vertically Challenged)
by RKP-Yoshi
Summary: Short people jokes will never get old because they'll never grow to overcome them...The following is Gumi's journey to accept such a tragic first world problem.


_Denial_

Gumi struggles, her toes curling into the alabaster tiling as she mentally wills for her body to stretch more. She extends her left arm up toward the vegetable oil, situated on the topmost shelf of one of the cabinets. She doesn't know why it's up there...because she's the only one that cooks out of herself and her flatmate and every time she uses it, she puts it under the cabinet.

But there it is. On the top shelf.

She ends up climbing onto the part of the counter that juts out further than the cupboards and cabinets do. It's probably a natural bodily instinct that's making her hesitate as she tries standing on the edge of the counter top. Gumi looks around momentarily before she tentatively puts the remainder of her body weight onto the top of the fridge door to regain her balance.

Gumi curls her fingers as if to coerce the bottle to move into her grasp telepathically. As soon as she manages to touch the greasy label of the bottle, her ears perk up at the sound of ambling footsteps. It's the only warning that she gets before the fridge opens beneath her arm and her center of gravity is thrown off.

 _Thunk!_

Gumi rubs her head, wincing before she shoots a glare at her flatmate who blinks at her stoically, his unkempt, periwinkle locks tied back into a little ponytail for some reason. Yuma blinks at her, then shrugs and waddles around the now opened fridge door, grabbing a Red Bull. He's about to walk back to his room with the Red Bull he just flipped open with his thumb, but he stops and reverses until he's behind Gumi, who feels her ears burn at the feeling of her back gently knocking against his chest.

And then Yuma just grabs the bottle from over his head and places it on Gumi's lap.

She stares dumbfounded at the bottle before climbing off the counter. It is then that she almost misses the smirk Yuma has on his face before he exits the kitchen.

That mothertrucker put it there on purpose.

Her eye twitches.

Gumi doesn't like him.

* * *

 _Anger_

This movie is awesome.

Sometime during Kevin Hart's attempt to perform a backflip again in the halls of his high school - only to have the reality that he's aged hit him like he's landed face first on a bunch of cracked tiles (oh wait it happened haha) - Gumi registers the pain in her neck.

Some mothertrucking truckwad won't take their trucking hat off and now she can't trucking see anything.

Gumi keeps leaning this way and that way; it gets to the point where her butt's raising off her seat and she may or may not be elbowing those beside him, not that she cares, since exerting all of her energy into widening her eyes - as though she would see more of the screen that way - was far more important.

Yuma silently watches Gumi, hiding his chuckles at the other's demise through mouthfuls of gummi bears and gulps of Pepsi for almost half the movie before offering to switch seats. Gumi agrees immediately and subconsciously moves toward one side of her new seat so she doesn't get elbowed in the ribs before she turns to Aiden.

The trucker can see perfectly over the hat. Yuma knows that Gumi knows that he can. And Gumi knows that Yuma knows he isn't hiding his amusement behind stuffing his face with snacks well enough anymore.

And speaking of snacks, Yuma finished all the gummi bears.

Gumi hates him.

* * *

 _Bargaining_

Sweat rolls down Gumi's jaw and into the collar of her tank.

She's at 35.

 _36...37...38...39...40._

Yuma's matching her lift for lift.

 _43..44...45..._

Yuma's starting to get tired. Gumi's rivulets of perspiration are beginning to reek of victory.

 _47...48...49-_

"Overcompensation isn't sexy," Mizki says as she strolls past the pair of them, pointedly looking at Gumi as she grabs one of the two matching Nike backpacks next to Yuma. Gumi loses her concentration and the weights slam back down in the way the rules of their weight lifting challenge say they're not supposed to.

Yuma gets to fifty and starts laughing. His younger sister joins him in his mirth as Gumi fumes at both of them. Her muscles are the same size as Yuma's, maybe even bigger. Mizki's a little shorter than her brother, but she's still taller than Gumi. And she knows Yuma just has more body to go with so his arms just look smaller.

Gumi hates both Yuma and his sister.

* * *

 _Depression_

Sleepy shuffles across the carpet turn to hisses when her feet meet the cold tile of the bathroom floor and Gumi groggily stands in front of the mirror. She's brushing her teeth when Aiden comes into the bathroom to join her.

Yuma grabs his toothbrush and toothpaste, stands behind Gumi, rests his chin on her head, and starts brushing her teeth.

Gumi lets her hand hit the counter with a _thump_ and glares at Yuma in the mirror as angrily as she can with her eyes half open and her toothbrush sticking out of her lips.

Yuma smirks and bends his knees just a little to ruffle Gumi's already messy jade mop of hair.

That was it.

Gumi spits into the sink and rinses her mouth, shrugging off Yuma's hands when her angry expression turns into a resigned one. She doesn't need to turn around to notice how Yuma's stare is burning into her head, concerned frown carving a scar into her spine.

Gumi doesn't give a crap anymore.

* * *

 _Acceptance_

The door gives way much easier under Gumi's weight than it usually does. Or maybe she's just leaning against it because she's so tired, and her fatigue is making her heavier. Either way, she stumbles when she enters the house late from work and dead tired on her feet.

The light's on in the kitchen. Yuma's stayed up waiting for her reading his dumb manga. He sees Gumi and smiles his dumb romantic smile and he walks over to help her not fall asleep on her feet.

When they get to their little couch-bed hybrid in the living room, Gumi leans into his chest. Her head fits under his chin and she can't help but smile into his neck as Yuma's arms wrap around her almost as effectively as a blanket. Despite her muscly build from being at the gym with Yuma and Mizki, she feels so girly like this. Petite. Small. But she doesn't mind because she wouldn't be able to use Yuma as a human pillow and blanket in one if she were taller.

Gumi likes this.

Gumi likes him.


End file.
